Penny Saves Paldea | Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Huge Misunderstandings

Juliana felt quite embarrassed at reading Penny so wrong. But apparently her humiliation wasn't quite over.

"So, yeah, um...I guess I should come completely clean," the girl said. "I'm Penny...and Cassiopeia. Along with being Team Star's leader."

Juliana had no immediate response to that. Her brain fired through possibilities in a desperate attempt to make sense with what she was hearing. Maybe Team Star was desperate for good leadership and Penny was working for them against her will?

"Hold up. Why start Operation Starfall, then shut it down, then become Team Star's leader? Were you kidnapped and blackmailed or something?"

"Hey, hey!" Now Giacomo came forward, pushing past Ortega so he stood only inches from Juliana. The whole group of them were going to be pressing their faces together in short order if they kept this up. "She hasn't been kidnapped. Or blackmailed! Or whatever else you--" His eyebrows rose, and he turned to face Penny. "Hold up. You started Operation Starfall, B.B.? You wanted Team Star to go down?"

"N-no! Penny waved her hands frantically. "I-I mean...yes, I did. At first. To get you back to school so you didn't expelled. But now there's bigger problems than school, and we need Team Star to fix them, and...and..." She buried her face in her hands and groaned. "And why is this so complicated?"

Giacomo didn't raise his voice. He didn't even look that angry--more hurt than anything else. Hesitantly, he patted Penny on the shoulder in a halfhearted attempt to comfort her.

Ortega stabbed at the ground with his staff again, drawing Juliana's attention. "Look," he said. "I don't know where you got such weird ideas about us, but we want to help Paldea. The same as I assume you do. We just need to study Arven for a while and find out what causes his phasing to activate. With that information, maybe we can stop the anomalies altogether."

"I..." Juliana felt a serious headache coming on. She'd come in here so confident, but Team Star seemed genuinely confused by her accusations. Arven was no help, still standing with his arms crossed, refusing to take part in the conversation. What was she supposed to do? Answer for him?

Carefully, she answered, "I don't know. Phasing through stuff over and over again sounds dangerous. Even if what you're saying is true."

"What do you mean 'even if it's true'?" Giamoco demanded. "You think we're lying?"

"Well..."

"What would we get out of a lie like that?" Ortega said, pointing the muddy end of his staff in Juliana's face. "Seriously. How do you think it benefits us to watch Arven sticking his hand through random objects for hours on end?"

"Which I'm not doing," Arven said. "So you can lay off of my friend already!" He came up alongside Juliana and shoved the staff away. Hard. It knocked Ortega off balance, sending him down on his butt into the mud. Murky rainwater splashed up, covered Penny's leggings, and drenched Ortega's fairy-pink suit. Arven's eyes widened, but instead of apologizing, he crossed his arms and stood over Ortega with a piercing glare. "If the same thing is happening to you, why don't you be Team Star's lab Rattata?"

"Because I can't control it, and you can!" Ortega snapped as he pushed himself into a crouch. He reached for his staff, only for his fingers to move right through it. He growled and stood, leaving his staff in the mud.

Doubt again crossed Arven's face, but again his angry tone took control. "Oh, so I'm special?"

"Clearly! Gee, I wonder how that happened!"

Juliana bit her lip. Making a sound judgment here was getting trickier by the second. But first she had to keep Arven and Ortega from going staff-to-frying-pan at each other. She stepped in between them. "Look, there's obviously a lot of tension here, so why don't we talk things out?" She patted Arven's arm and gently pushed down on Ortega's balled-up fist. Mostly to make sure they didn't take any fury-filled swings.